The Wolf and Lion: Predators of the Zodiac
by Thea Rea
Summary: What are you talking about, Kyo-kun? Of course you're real." Chapter Four up.
1. Death Knocks

**Author's Notes:** Hello, hello, it has been a while since I have put anything up on FF(dot)net. Isn't that amazing? Haha. This story is one that has actually kept my attention for over the course of a few months, even if I have just started to write it now. Heh. Well, I hope you like it a lot, because it's my baby right now. Mwuhhahahaaaaa. Yeah.

**Disclaimer:** Do I look like someone who would own Fruits Basket?

**The Wolf and Lion: Predators of the Zodiac**

**Author:** T hea R ea

-

**Death Knocks**

In the olden ages, when someone important to the country died, the death bells tolled for so many times as the age of the deceased. The sound was heard throughout all of the villages, and all of the villagers were given the honor to gather to the place in which the dead was to be laid for eternity. It was a melancholy time when they rang the bells, and all wore their black garments and prayed for the safe bringing of the soul to the heavens. It was beautiful, yet sad, a ritual that was carried on for years and years on end. For hundreds of years, before they abruptly stopped.

Now, at least a few thousand years later, there were no bells to shake for the death of two very important people, at least to the heart of a young high-school girl. Their deaths would become mere memory to those who lived in a matter of days, for there were no whole villages garbed in black and bowing their heads to pray. Their deaths would be unnoticed after weeks, and life would return to as it had been before their accident. With the absence of themselves, of course. But even in this modern time, there are some who would wear black and pray for weeks on end. It just so happened that these two had one who would not ever forget them, this young woman, Tohru Honda. She would remember she did not forget things so traumatizing.

And so, these two young deceased people would forever be remembered by Tohru. But, in their remembrance there would bring pain to the same mourner. Their absence from her life would take a deep toll upon her heart and drive her into direction that even they did not thin she would ever go. An ill fate befell poor Tohru Honda the day Arisa Uo and Saki Hanajima died.

-

"Excuse me, Miss Honda, would you please come to the main office?" a woman wearing glasses came from outside of the room, holding the door open with the palm of her hand. "It's important."

Tohru Honda popped her head up, aqua eyes flecked with surprise. What had she done to end up in the office? "Yes, I'm coming," pressing her hands down upon her desk; she pushed out her chair from behind her. Carefully placing it back into its place, Tohru lingered there for a few moments, eyeing the class for her friends before finally walking towards the exit. She saw both Yuki and Kyo's heads turn as she exited and she gave them an easy smile, though she secretly wondered what exactly she had actually done. Shutting the door behind her, she met up with the women in glasses in a silent trot.

The white-painted hallways were completely silent, with the exception of the woman's loud clanking heels. Tohru's black shoes made no sound upon the ground, and though the clapping of the shoes bothered her, she remained polite.

Staring directly ahead, she brushed a piece of stray brown hair from her eyes before asking, "Why have I been sent to the office?" Blue eyes flickered over to the woman momentarily, looking for an expression of recognition from her question.

"Miss Honda," the woman started talking quietly, her heels clapping loudly, _clap, clap, clap. _"There is some bad news… We have found two bodies and we…" Tohru's shocked eyes met the woman's, and the woman dropped her gaze immediately. "And we… identified that they were the bodies of Arisa Uo and Saki Hanajima."

Tohru's silent footfalls stopped, and she turned her head quickly towards her company, braided brown hair flying on her shoulder. "Y-You must have been mistaken," Tohru mumbled quietly, bowing her head onto her chest. She was shaking visibly, fingers clenching into a fist to try to avoid breaking down completely. "No offense, Miss, b-but I am sure that you are m-mistaken. Arisa and Saki are fine, I just talked to them yesterday." With an attempt to remain stable, Tohru veered of to the side of the hallway, resting herself against the walls. "Please tell me that you are wrong… please?"

"I'm sorry Miss Honda, but there is no mistaking who they are. I'm sincerely sorry at the loss," the glasses woman bowed her head. "Do you want to get back to class? Or do you want to go home? Or…"

Tohru shuddered and slid down onto the floor, distraught over the news that had touched her ears. This was too much for even Tohru to handle. She had experienced so much death in her life, why couldn't it just go away? Why was it that death knocked upon the door of the people she loved so often? Was she bad luck, was death meant for her as well? What could all of this dieing mean?

"I'm… I'm going to go back to class. But… can I go alone?" pain was clear in her words, she strained to make them croak from her throat. The woman bowed and nodded her head solemnly before turning around and scurrying away. This left Tohru to her own devices and most of them were not bent on returning back to the class room. There was too much pain there, so many fine moments shared with Saki and Uo. She could not return to such a place yet.

Standing up with a struggle, Tohru balanced her frame against the white wall. What was she going to do now? The only one she had left from her past was herself. Mother, gone. Father, long gone. Now her two best friends were lost to her. She felt like death was coming towards her next, the icy grip beginning to swarm over her shaken body.

"NO!"

The white of the hallway floor was a blur in her vision. Her footsteps now echoed ominously in the empty passage way, the reverberating making it seem like another was chasing after her. Black shoes dug into her heels, red abrasions would prove the injury later in time. Her heart was pounding at an unhealthy rate, fear making it escalate high. She felt as though it was about to explode inside, and she was to fall into the arms of death, even as she ran from it. Tohru's throat was on fire, dry and cracked, she couldn't breathe properly. Her eyes watered and stung, salty tears running damp streaks down her face. Aqua irises turned a startling sky-blue, the tears making the pigment react in a strange way. Her braid flopped behind her, hitting her back. She couldn't make sense of anything. Why did this have to happen again?

Tohru Honda, the angelic heroine, the helper of the Zodiac, was in a state of complete shock, She couldn't see the ground below her as she ran, the world a blur of white. Fear ran lines down her face, etching the emotion deeply in her newly turned sky-blue eyes. Her skin was shining with a slim sheen of sweat, a nervous appearance. Not such uncommon behavior for a person who just caught wind of the death of her two best friends. As she quickly ran down the hallway, oblivious to her surroundings, her class far behind her, she thought on singular thing;

Please god, not them too.

SLAM!!

Tohru was tossed forcibly back at the sudden impact. Her chest felt as though someone had punched her, pain clotting there for moments. Her eyes closed as she flew back, breath release in an airy 'huff'. She was temporarily stunned as she collapsed sprawled on the ground, pain brushed heatedly through the leg that she had awkwardly landed on. A slight splash of hurt curtained her sad expression as she sat there with the pain shooting through her right leg. Sky blue eyes gazed up hesitantly at the person who she had collided with. With her mouth half open, ready to release a string of apologies, Tohru was stunned into a stupor.

In front of her stood a human of the most beautiful appearance she had seen in quite a while. (She had gotten over Kyo and Yuki's beauty quite a while ago.)

A man with the most golden hair graced her vision. While others may have looked ugly under the harsh lights, this man had such gorgeous features they made him look even better. His dark eyes were trained harshly on her face, an almost sickened look twisting his beautiful expression. He looked like a lion standing above its injured prey, within those black orbs there crawled amusement at her pain. He wore the school's uniform, the navy bringing out his gold hair even more because of the contrast.

With the movements of a predator, he swished towards her. A small squeak finally escaped her lips as the beauty crouched next to her.

"That was incredibly rude, aren't you going to apologize?" his voice was not what she had expected. Instead of the harsh, gravely tones she had assumed, he spoke with a velvety, but icy quality to his tone. Tohru's throat closed momentarily as she stared up at him, the teenager's expression was dead serious. His face was suddenly inches from her own, eyes shimmering with what seemed like menace. "Apologize." Tohru breathed heavily, clearly entranced, suddenly not even noticing the pain that groped at her injured leg.

"S-sorry…" Tohru murmured dryly. Her mouth was nastily parched as she gazed upon the looming guy, terrified of what was to come next. The lion like boy rose from crouched position, an amused flare within his eyes replacing the menace. "I didn't mean to run into you like that, I'm so sorry!" Tohru exclaimed, suddenly flustered at how he was looking down upon her.

He was so condescending; it seemed, peering at her like she was somehow lower then him in all ways. He stood feet in front of her now, seeming to study her face for a few spare moments before cracking a smirk. Tohru's blue eyes watched him, waiting for him to say something that would make her wince again.

Tohru flinched as he extended a pale hand, but she quickly could tell that he was not going to strike her. She had never been so easy to flinch before, scared of someone so much like this. He just seemed so threatening, and his pompous behavior did not make him seem anymore likable. Meeting his hand with her own, he easily lifted her from her seated position. She grasped hesitantly onto his fingers, reluctant to let him help her. As they separated hands, she quickly placed her hand against her leg, rubbing the sore appendage as she stood awkwardly before him. He gave her a skeptical look, noticing how she so quickly let go of his hand.

"Do you need to be somewhere?" his smooth voice broke Tohru from her pain induced trance. Suddenly it all came crashing back down upon her. The lovely, but frightening, daze he had put her into shattered, and she could feel herself trembling again. Waves of fright settled down into her, and she leaned once more against the white walls.

"Are you… okay?" he questioned the wavering Tohru hesitantly.

"Ah… y-yes. I… just really need to be somewhere right now. Thank you for helping me," Tohru trailed off absently. She was so overwhelmed now, recalling her friend's fate was really breaking her down again.

Her leg hindered her movements, and she could not longer run, she realized. She couldn't run from her friend's deaths anymore, she had to get back to class. She had to…

"Miss…"

"My friends…" she croaked, staring emptily into the space before her. Her heart tugged viciously, her mind protested. She clutched her chest, it hurt so badly. "Are… _dead_? No…" She mumbled so quietly that he could almost not heart her. She turned towards him. "Are they… dead? T-they can't be…" The lion-boy's expression was blank, almost appearing to be bitter. "No…"

"Miss…" he was talking again, and this time his voice seemed a little afraid. Tohru turned her face towards him; tears lingered on her cheeks, blue eye half-lidded. "Miss!" the lion-boy stepped towards her, his tone was frantic.

Tohru couldn't feel her right or left leg, pain faded into numbness. Something wrapped around her wait securely. "Dead… Saki… Arisa… no…" Lids shut over her eyes, sight disappeared. Hearing was rapidly fading; the only thing could be heard was the boy's shoes on the floor. His soft voice chanting, "Miss… Miss… please wake up."

_Why were they gone? Oh god, why them?_

-

"Why did you leave me here all alone? Why did you go?" Tohru's voce was faint; she could feel strong heat blaring down on her face. Her body felt as though it would explode at any moment. Too much heat was focused on her, too much pain was scattered around her. Limbs refused to move, or they were so numb she could not feel them. "Why did you leave? Why… Saki, Arisa? Why…? Mom… Dad?"

"Tohru-chan, what are you talking about?" a voice she loved called out to her, Arisa Uo's voice, tough but sweet.

"Tohru-chan, we're here. Please don't cry anymore," the soft tone of Saki.

Tohru could almost open her eyes to look at them, but eyelids remained loosely closed. Tears slipped past them still, and finally one of her arms would move. As she rose it, it groped hesitantly, only to meet air. Fear churned over her, and she flung out her arm again, this time landing on something. Fabric, by the feel of it. Happy tears spilled once more past her eyes.

"Oh, Arisa, Saki! I missed you so much! Don't scare me like that anymore!" her voice was high-pitched and filled with joy. Her fingers ran soothingly down the fabric, assuming it was the clothing of her dead friends,. She hesitantly raised it to touch the face of the owner. When skin brushed her finger tip she sighed happily. "Thank god." Running her frail, trembling appendages over the face, feeling the curves, making out the features, the eyes, the lips, the cheeks, the chin.

Suddenly a gasp of air left Tohru's mouth, and with her eyes closed, she felt the resistance of air beneath her. She was falling!

"ARISA! SAKI!" groping out at the air, she could grasp onto nothing. "NO!"

Something caught her fall, warm and soft beneath her touch. A sigh of relief fell from her lips, and finally she was capable of opening her eyes to see her friends. But when blue eyes opened to the hopeful sight of her dear friends, they met ebon eyes instead. Her mouth was hanging open, her eyes blank, but still spilling tears. Her just dried cheeks had more paths of damp skin now. She reached out for something, anything to steady herself on. His arm was the closest thing in her capacity of reaching.

"I…" her thoughts clogged, words were once more choked. "I… I… don't know what to…" Shaking her head, Tohru couldn't complete the rest of her words. Fingernails punctured deeper into the sleeve of the lion-boy who didn't even flinch at the tightness of her grip upon him. "No. No. No." Clinging helplessly to him, she pulled herself closer and rested her head against his arm.

The lion-boy flinched, "Hey… Who… do you think you are?" His words were dark and unkind, ripping deeply into her heart. Her sniffling stopped momentarily, blue eyes pulling up to stare at the black-eyed stranger she slung onto for dear life. "Why… do you think you can do things like this?" Cutting, his voice was on the edge again. Threats were involved in his speech, words heavy. Tohru's grip died slowly, fingers loosening around his navy sleeve.

"I'm sorry," when she spoke, her voice was mechanical; her eyes grew blank as she looked upon him. Wasn't she used to this kind of behavior? Hadn't she been treated like this before anyway…? At her father's funeral. At her mother's funeral. People weren't all sympathetic. People weren't all nice. "I'm really sorry; it was extremely rude to be forcing myself on you like this…" Brushing a stray brown hair from her face, Tohru's expression turned downward, hiding the tears that still ran.

"Ch. What is so wrong with you anyway? Screaming people's names at the top of your lungs like that? Groping at my face like a molester? Are you stupid? I can already tell inconsiderate. Obnoxious might fit into that category as well," the lion-boy was taunting her, quite cruelly.

For some reason, Tohru's mind couldn't handle the taunts like she had at the other funerals. Dipping her head down onto her knees, she tugged at the top of her hair as the boy stared down at her with disgust. Her voice muttered apologies and the boy didn't even acknowledge them as they came down upon him. Her heart still tugged viciously, causing her chest to burn with pain. Her leg stung heatedly, her eyes felt as though they were on fire, her voice cracked as she spewed her apology. As her fingers jittered uncomfortably against the top of her head, pulling at the strands of brown hair, she raised her head ever so slightly. Above her the golden-haired teenager was giving her a long stare.

"Thank you for helping me… Sorry for being a burden and wasting you time with my hysterics. I will be fine, please go," Tohru stated in a low voice.

"I don't know if I should actually go. You might decide to commit suicide," the lion-boy shrugged his shoulders and sat down next to her on the bed. "And I'm sure there are some people in this school that would be upset at your death. A boy or two who would regret not asking you out. Also people who would think you were insane, and I'm sure a few who would find you a disgusting example of their student body."

Tohru shuddered, feeling another jolt of pain surf through her leg. Eyes looked towards the boy again, who was staring absently into space, as if she wasn't there at all. But, though his gaze looked inattentive, Tohru could tell that his eyes were also watching her. Such predatory eyes, she had already judged him to have, ones that seemed to scare you into a frozen trance. The air around him was threatening, and so she sought the other side of the bed to sit upon.

"Afraid?" he spoke quietly, noticing her subtle movements to the other edge of the bed. "You probably should be." Though he spoke to her as though he was a threat to her life, he inched closer. His face drew closer to hers, and he bore his teeth at her, smirking. "You see, I'm a very dangerous individual. I might do something unthinkable to you," the boy completed his words by chuckling darkly. Tohru had the image of his bore teeth in her face. There was a slightly sharp edge to his canines, as though he were some dangerous animal. This, combined with all else about him, frightened her.

"I-I think I should go," Tohru hurried herself up, pain flickered briefly through her face. "Mayuko Sensei is my Homeroom teacher and I have Homeroom next." Letting a fake smile cloak her pained expression, Tohru turned her head briefly towards the lion-boy, "Uhm… Can I get the name of my help?"

The teenager stared at her for a few seconds before giving her a strange smirk, "No."

Seemingly unconcerned about her stumbling frame and her pained face, the lion-boy stood up beside her. With animal-like grace he left the room in few strides, long legs carrying him far. Enchanted briefly by this golden-haired stranger again. Tohru's blue eyes watched him remove himself from her sight.

Shaking her head with relief at his absence, Tohru moved her right leeg forward. Pain laced it's way up but she clenched her teeth through it and completed her steps towards the door. But when she touched the smooth wood, the chill soothed her steaming mind and she leaned against it for support. Breath was heavy and she knew that she was running a fever, because the wood was too cool for her body temperature to be normal.

Light eyes wandered the room, searching for something that would help her. It was in this moment that she noticed she in the infirmary, but the school Nurse wasn't here. She attempted to steady herself as the starch white room spun her vision. Why wasn't he nurse here? Why wasn't the stupid nurse here?

That lion-boy probably had known she had a fever, he carried her all the way here…

"And yet he left me here alone anyway…" she mused aloud, before collapsing against the door and leaning her head against it. "Someone… help…" Throat tightened, heavy breaths even harder to gasp for. Why am I always so… useless? Heh." She swallowed hard and gave into the heat that poured over her.

Outside of the room the lion-boy stood against the same door and shook his head in boredom. Golden hair rustled as he brushed it against his face. "So useless."


	2. Acts of the Selfish

**Author's Notes:** Zomg. The second chapter already? With one review, I am still able to go on. xD Hopefully I will attract more readers, for this depresses me. Heh. Thanks for replying, Dishrag-chan, I am glad you find it interesting so far. Woot, one reviewer! Continue to review, please, it'll help me with my skillz. Heeehee. Anyway, sorry for anything that is kind of Out of Character in this chapter. Meh, you'll get over it though.

**Disclaimer:** The lawyers said it will illegal for me to say I did actually own it... Damn them to hell!

**The Wolf and Lion; Predators of the Zodiac**

**Author**: T hea R ea

-

**Acts of the Selfish**

"Honda-san," a worried, soft voice called out to her from the darkness.

Finger's stroke her damp cheeks, toyed with the tendrils of her brown hair. Soft breathing caught her ears and she had to open her eyes to stare upon the face that touched her so dearly. The pale, but kind face of Yuki Sohma caught her vision. His fingers were playing gently with her let-down hair, which was strewn in waves across her white pillow. He smiled at her awakening, and she automatically returned the gesture.

Letting go of the chocolate tendrils, he sat quietly down next to her. (He had been leaning over her before). "You were out for three periods, Honda-san. I, as well as Kyo, was worried, so I decided to come looking for you. I knew that I couldn't let Kyo come, considering her violent behavior. I bet he would have torn up the Nurse's office for not informing him." Chuckling, Yuki drew his hands together and leaned back in his chair. "But, I am wondering what happened, Honda-san."

"I..." Tohru's head was spinning still at the recent events. "Saki and Arisa..." she stared blankly at Yuki, hands trembled over the sheets.

"They haven't been at school today... did they bring you here? If so, where did they..."

"No," Tohru shook her head. "Yuki-kun... they... they... that woman who came to the class to bring me to the office? She... she told me something that happened." Bowing her head to her chest, light brown tendrils covering her worn down expression. Her mind protested when she went to say it. She brought her trembling fingers to her face hoping to settle herself do with. "They... are _gone_."

"Honda..." Yuki's voice wavered; he reached out his hands towards the shaking girl. Grey eyes were woven with sadness, but he had to attempt to comfort that poor girl. She had lost her two best friends, the last two who tied her past together. "I'm so... sorry." Hands grasped her shoulders and he pulled her in towards him quietly.

Tohru felt herself shake even harder as he attempted to pull her into a backwards hug. "No, Yuki-kun-" she felt her throat grow dry as he continued the gesture. Their bodies were about to touch when she flinch out of his attempted, comforting embrace. Hands had shot out towards him and pushed his body away from her's. She grabbed her own shoulders and turned to the other side, as if she wanted to avoid him. A pink flush colored her cheeks. What had she just done?

"D-don't put your family's secret in danger for me," Tohru spoke dryly, her eyes averted towards the floor. Her heart raced silently in her chest, her ears beat with the rushing blood. "I'm not worth the exposure of such a secret. And besides, I'm fine. No need to do unnecessary things." Tohru brushed a piece of hair from her face, fingers still quivered.

Yuki watched her back, the outline of her frame under the fabric of her uniform. She was shaking so bad that it was visible and he wanted to hold her still she stopped, very badly. But, when he had offered her a comforting embrace, she had tore away form him with such a scared look in her eye. There was a slight sting where her hands had pressed against his chest. What had he done wrong? was it bad to want to help her in her time of need? Faintly, he heard the rustling of the door being opened behind the curtain. He ignored it.

"Honda-san..." he began slowly, her tormented expression as she tilted her head in his direction. "Maybe I should take you home?" Holding his arm against his side with his hand, he looked slightly abashed. He was thinking that his behavior before had made him look lecherous, perhaps like a player who wanted to use her vulnerability as something to 'get' with her. He didn't want that kind of impression of him in her mind, and by the way that she stared at him, he already though it to be too late.

"Uhm..." Tohru began softly, her face still flushed as she turned her head to the side as well. She felt sick at the moment, from the way she had treated her friend when he was simply trying to comfort her, and by how she selfishly wanted to be treated like that. After the occurrence with the curl lion-boy earlier, she wanted to be held in warm arms and told that it would be caring. It would be selfish to ask that kind of sympathy from the people around her though... "Perhaps that would be for the best?"

Once more aqua eyes were downcast still, and Yuki was watching her with worry. If he had asked her any other day, and she was worse off then this, he was sure that she'd stay. Her school-work was so important to her and she never liked to miss class. Seeing her in such a distraught position made him feel kind of sick from himself. It hurt him so to see her like this; he wished that she would accept his attempt to comfort her.

"The least I can do is carry you..." Yuki spoke in an amused whisper. Leaning in towards her, he bent down to pick her from her laying form on the bed. A deep red curtain of shock covered her face and she flailed as his hands delved under her waist.

"Y-Yuki!" she squealed and hid her face beneath her fingers once more. The rustling of the curtains stopped Yuki mid-lift.

"Excuse me," a male voice chided, "but are you attempting to steal this student?"

Tohru's eyes never made it towards the man who spoke, because once Yuki turned around he dropped her lightly back on the bed. Before she could spot who exactly had disturbed Yuki's attempt to carry her away, the grey-haired man had pushed the owner of the voice back behind the curtain. Tohru saw the frame of two men behind the curtain, Yuki clearly the one on the left. The other man, the one on the right was leaning back casually on his heels, while Yuki's mouth moved quickly.

Not all of the words met her ears, but Yuki's voice rose a little in the middle of the conversation, and she could partly hear what he as saying, "Why... here? ... Does ... know? ... WHAT?" The shrill rise of a screech from Yuki's part made all other noises automatically die. Clutching her ears to get the ring from murdering her brain, Tohru peeked out at the curtains once more. The man on the right was clutching one of Yuki's fisted hands. Thanking that this was a fight, Tohru stumbled out of bed, only to once more be overwhelmed by pain and collapse upon the curtains.

The ivory sheet between Tohru and the two men on the other side was drawn down, and the pained Tohru Honda fell onto the other side. "E-excuse me?' she murmured as she got up, noticing the look that Yuki was giving her."Sorry... Yuki-kun..." she spoke in apology before turning her head to the side to examine the other man whom Yuki was talking to.

Once more today her eyes were invited to a feast of a handsome man. he looked young, at least early twenties. Amused dark green eyes glittered at her, longish chocolate hair was shifted as he brushed it with his fingers. He was in a white doctor's coat, fashioned over a suit that was unbuttoned. He was a few inches above Yuki's height, making him nearly a giant compared to Tohru.

"Why did this have to happen?" Yuki sighed, placing a hand on his face.

"Yuki-kun, is something the matter?" Tohru spoke, rising to her feet. THe pain had numbed down a notch and she could stand, though awkwardly. Turning her head, she looked to greet the older man, but he beat her to the punch.

Swooping down to her height, his face was right next ot her own as he spoke, "Nice meeting you, I'm-"

"She doesn't care what your name is," Yuki cut in, grey eyes watching the Nurse darkly. "She's going home, so can you write a note to the Main Office, Nurse Sohma." Yuki's voice was venomous and Tohru was almost too distracted by the tone of his voice to notice that the man before her was a Sohma. But, she caught the name before Yuki's dark behavior over-came everything else on her mind.

"Sohma?" Tohru spoke quickly. "You're a Sohma?"

The man grinned and nodded, "That I am indeed. The name is Kei, Kei Sohma. Nice to meet you, Tohru Honda-chan." With a wink he drew her hand in a kiss. She had the intention to flinch away and run, but she couldn't do that to someone she just met.

_And yet I can do it to Yuki?_

Sending the gray-haired teenager a sad look, she let her hand go limp back to her side once Kei let go. Yuki was staring at her with a slightly curious expression, though it was simply there to cloak the inner annoyance her was keeping up towards his cousin, Kei. He would never publicly show his despise of the man, considering the impression of calmness he had to maintain, but inside he was always boiling with rage in his presence.

"So what did you do to this poor girl to make her go home? Change into a rat on her?" laughing almost obnoxiously, Kei turned towards his desk to find a going-home slip from the adorable, brown-haired Tohru.

Yuki gave the man the cold shoulder, simply averting his eyes towards the window, clutching his arms to restrain any attack. Tohru stood awkwardly in the middle of them, running her jittery fingers down the waves in her hair. A cool chill was running through her body, down her spine, making her want to jump. It felt as though the winter wind was lashing across her naked back, causing her to squirm with pain. It was hard to overcome such a dreadful feeling, leaving Tohru in a half-daze as she stared blankly at the floor beneath her.

"Tohru-chan?" Kei's hand was in her face, holding out a piece of paper towards her. "Are you sure you're okay to get home?" Snatching the paper from between Kei's fingers, Yuki pulled at Tohru's arm as he walked towards the door. "Aw, don't be such a meany, Yuki-chan," smirking from beneath him, Kei leaned in towards the still dazed Tohru. "Come on, darling, wake yourself up," he grinned, "or I will have to." Noticing her lack of answer, he swiftly bent his head and planted a cute kiss upon her cheek, "Chuu."

"Ehh?" after feeling the brush of his lips against her cheek, Tohru's face flushed for the millionth time this chapter. "E-e-ehhh????" Clutching her kissed cheek, Tohru was tugged in the direction that Yuki was willing her.

Now Yuki had an even darker look on his face, somewhere between irritation and disappointment. Even at such a drastic time in Tohru's life like this, he couldn't help but feel jealous of his older cousin. Not that he'd admit that he wanted to kiss Tohru's cheek and make a cute, 'Chuu' sound, but...

"Oh, Yuki, Miyagi is here."

At the mention of the name, Yuki's grip slackened a bit, but his face tensed into a shocked expression. Turning his head back, Kei stared at him with a devious smirk on his face.

"Take care and be careful, Tohru-chan, Yuki-_chan_." Replacing the twisted smirk with a child-like grin Kei waved them goodbye. In a way, Kei really reminded Tohru of Shigure.

As the door shut behind them Tohru wondered why another Sohma was in town and why she hadn't heard of him yet. And why no one told her that he was such a... eccentric man (pervert.. cough). Still touching her kissed cheek, she wondered briefly who Miyagi was, and why Yuki had gotten so tense at the spoken name. Perhaps Yuki and Miyagi held a relationship like Yuki and Kyo? Or perhaps like... Yuki and Akito? Peeking up at the storming Yuki, Tohru saw a blank expression yet struggling eyes. What was he struggling so?

"Yuki-kun..." Tohru whispered softly. "Are you okay?"

"Don't you have other things to worry about," Yuki's reply was not one that she would have expected. He sounded cold, mean.

Stopping abruptly, Tohru pried her arm away from Yuki's tightened grip. The memories were still there, the words still haunted her from what the woman told her.

How could he be so inconsiderate of her feelings?

Wasn't he supposed to be different from that other boy?

Wasn't he supposed to want to help her?

Wasn't he supposed to be caring and sweet and gentle?

Wasn't he supposed...?

Tohru turned her head away when he looked back at her. "I'm sorry for being a bother. Perhaps you should be getting back to class?" Tohru muttered this dryly. "I can get home myself. Can I have the pass?" How unlike her, to be this selfish and uncaring towards him. She was supposed to stay by his side when he was like this, not bail on him because he said one cruel thing. But... she couldn't handle it. Not today.

"Honda-san..."  
"Yuki-kun, please!" raising her voice slightly, Tohru kept her head downcast as she rose her arms to accept the ticket of freedom once he handed it to her. Her expression was pained and sad, incapable of looking him in the eye.  
Turning his own head away, Yuki placed the white slip of paper into her hand. Grasping it with trembling fingers, Tohru brushed quickly past him to finish the walk down to the office. Her heart hurt as she moved, her leg stung at the swiftness of her pace. But she couldn't do it today, she couldn't think of other people today. She was being a selfish little witch, and today she couldn't car any less of it.

Yuki stared after her with helpless grey eyes. He knew that when he spoke to her it wasn't what anyone would have expected. He couldn't even tell himself that he had said that to her, it pained him to even think about the recent memory. But it was there, the shock and hurt in her expression when he hauntingly replied to her kind words. It made his heart ache to think about it.

"I'm sorry," they both whispered as they moved down their own ways. "I don't mean to act this way around you."

Tohru stopped and crouched on the floor feet away from the office, clutching her chest.

Yuki leaned tiredly against the wall next to his classroom, rubbing his forehead.

How could everything go down like this in a matter of hours?

-

"Yo," Kyo's orange head popped up when the door slammed shut. The homeroom's usual noise continued as Prince Yuki sauntered in with a defeated and depressed expression on his face, plopping down into his seat right in front of where Kyo was. "Hey, I was talking to you, stupid rat." Yuki tilted his head back to look at him, but made no move to neither reply nor get angry at his taunting behavior.

"Yes, Kyo?" Yuki muttered, turning around in his seat to look at the cat fully. He didn't even bother to remove the pieces of hair that blocked his vision as he crossed his arms against the back of his chair and rested his head. "Do you actually need something or are you just going to speak without reason?"

"What's the matter with Tohru?" Kyo didn't even notice the insult that was drawn into Yuki's statement. "You must have run into her, or is that stupid expression because you couldn't find her?" Orange eyes narrowed in worry as he stared upon his cousin. Was something wrong with Tohru? "Hey, stupid, answer my question!" Baring his teeth, Kyo pushed himself upwards. "What is the matter?"

"Don't do anything rash, idiot," Yuki murmured faintly beneath his breath. Brushing the strands of grey from his face, Yuki stared upon Kyo's flame-hued head. "She's fine," he lied between his teeth. "I ran into her at the nurse's office, she had just woken up. I sent her home."

"Alone?!" Kyo seethed, his eyes turning a shade darker. "If she was in the Nurse's office that must mean that she wasn't feeling well, right? What asinine idea did you have to send her off by herself?" While Yuki pondered on the thought of how Kyo even knew the word asinine, Kyo shoved the desk out of the way to go run off from class and find Tohru. This, of course, would end Kyo up in detention or something, and Yuki could see trouble approaching.

"Don't act on random ideas, Kyo; you'll get yourself in trouble. Why don't you just sit down and relax? You really think Honda-san is stupid enough to fall over and die?" Sighing, Yuki looked defeated as he slumped his head down against his desk. "I couldn't stop her, I doubt that you can, idiot." Snorting, Yuki raised his head a little to take a peek at his obnoxious counterpart.

"I'm not going to let her just wander off into danger!" Kyo exclaimed, drawing attention to him. "I DO think she could get hurt out there on her own, especially when she is hurt! You're the idiot for letting her go off on her own!" Growling, Kyo pushed himself past the crowd of students who had surrounded the desks that the two had been fighting at. But, with it just ended, they were a bit disappointed.

Releasing a breath at his cousin's stupidity, Yuki rose as well from his seat. "Excuse me," he spoke calmly, gently pushing aside his classmates to talk to Kyo in private.

By now Kyo was storming down the hallways, an enraged expression on his face as he stomped. Yuki could just see him turning the corner, the vibrant color of his hair against the white hallways making him easy to spot out. He knew he had to catch up to his cousin before he made a fool of himself, if he hadn't already done that. Stomping around like an ogre was not the most fitting image for Kyo Sohma, and stopping him before he ran randomly into someone would be for the best. Yuki could almost imagine the scene, a blood bath. No one would be in his way of 'protecting' Tohru. He'd probably smash her before he saw her.

Trotting to catch up with his ogre cousin, Yuki just made it around the corner before an unknowing bystander was the next murder victim. Two boys were walking down the hallway were oblivious to the danger coming towards them, and Yuki had little time to grab Kyo and shove him against the wall before he stamped them to smithereens.

"Let go of me!" Kyo struggled, wriggling beneath Yuki's hands.

"Stop acting like an idiot and I'll think about it," Yuki snarled, keeping his pale hands clamped on Kyo's shoulders. "You're not going to stop her, and you're not going to skip school. Leave Honda-san alone, she doesn't need to be bothered by your inanity at the moment." Kyo growled, Yuki shoved him roughly against the wall before removing his fingers from the other's teenager's shoulders. "She has a lot on her chest right now, so why don't you save her some stupidity and leave her alone?" With a dark look tossed over his shoulder, Yuki began walking back to class.

"Damnit, don't walk away from me after doing that!" Kyo shouted after the other's boy's retreating back. Running after him, Kyo pulled back his fist to land a punch in the other man's face. Noticing that Yuki didn't do anything made Kyo's rage grow even more. Grabbing Yuki's shoulder, her spun him around and landed a fist right into his cheek. "Don't you fucking think you can talk down to me like that!" Shaking his used fist, Kyo looked at the fallen Yuki, who was clutching a red cheek.

"You don't even know what the hell is happening!" Yuki shouted back, the emotion of rage clearly seen in his darkened grey eyes. "So don't you act like you can do anything you want! Don't go charging up to her, freaking out on her, and making her in even more pain then she already is! You're such an idiot if you do! Do you want her to hurt?" Tears sprung in his eyes at the pain, cheek already swollen. Just thinking of her made his throat close, the image of her pained expression as she looked up at him. The view of her flinching from his touch. Why did it hurt so much to be rejected by her whole body?

"Don't… bother her with your stupid problems," Yuki muttered from his place on the floor, wiping his lips. "Don't make her feel any more pain."

"How do I know that you're not making this entire thing up?" Kyo's lips curled back in a growl.

"Do you think I'd make up Honda-san in pain? Do you think I'd do all of this to keep you away from her if something really traumatic didn't happen?" Yuki stared harshly up at Kyo's blazing eyes. "I don't even think you understand what she is going through right now at all. You won't be able to comprehend her aching heart." Feeling the tears run down his cheeks, Yuki stumbled upwards and stuck out his arm to keep steady.

"I can't understand it because you're not telling m-!"

"They are dead!" Yuki shouted back, a struggling look in his eyes as he spewed it forth. "They are gone from this life, they are dead! Do you now understand why? Don't you care about her? Don't you…?" Yuki trailed off and brought up his arm to wipe away his running tears. He knew that he was blubbering like a girl, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to see Tohru like that again. Never.

"What… are you talking about?" Kyo stumbled upon his words, wincing at the intense air that this situation suddenly had. "No one died…" Kyo's lips moved and as the words released his mouth grew dry.

"Yes… they did," Yuki muttered, rubbing his face. "And I could've helped her… if only Kei… and Miyagi…" Rubbing his head for the second time today, Yuki looked out from the window. His eyes caught the sight of a crouching brown-haired girl at the edge of the school grounds. Even from here, he could tell that she was crying.

"Leave her alone, just for today," Yuki muttered, before turning his back on Kyo.

"But now is the time she needs us the most, can't you understand that?" Kyo shot back at the boys disappearing form. "She… needs comfort."

Yuki stopped momentarily at these words, and shook his head. "But I couldn't even give her that," he whispered.

"Tohru…" Kyo whispered with a sorrowful expression. Turning his eyes towards the window, he gazed upon the sight of the woman crumbled into a ball, sobbing her eyes out. With the same worried facade, Kyo moved silently towards the doors leading out, hoping to help comfort the poor girl.


	3. Strangely Kind and Compassionate

**Author's Note:** Zoh, Mi, GOD. LULZ. I have posted a chapter... Woooowww... Don't hate me for being so late. Please, please, please. Oh, and PLEASE read. And excuse any OOC because I think there is a lot of it in this chapter from Tohru. GAHH.

**Disclaimer:** This is the spot where I DIS CLAIM Fruits Basket. Hoo hoo hoo.

**The Wolf and Lion: Predators of the Zodiac**

**Author:** T hea R ea

-

**Strangely Kind and Compassionate**

"Tohru," the name was whispered sympathetically past the lips of Kyo Sohma as he approached the fallen girl. She was clutching at her chest with her head down on her knees. Her chocolate hair cascaded in little waves down her shoulders. The front strands hid her face like a curtain. Her sobs hit him like the cold waves of the ocean, making him feel the need to back away from her. The moment she was having was so private and emotional he almost felt compelled to back off, almost.

There was this wall of hesitance that nearly blocked him off from her. Perhaps it was what Yuki had said before he had left the school, the words that made him head spin with anger and pure frustration. He hadn't really thought over them as he walked out of the school, but now they were hitting him with a feeling he couldn't ignore. For once in his life he thought of actually listening to what the Rat had said, and it was unusual, he didn't like it. So he pushed away any rational thing that Yuki had said and came closer to the depressed girl.

With a conflicted face, Kyo had taken a few more steps towards her direction which had caught the girl's attention. Her head suddenly shot around to look at him, watery blue eyes directed on him. Her emotions were strung across her face, sadness and despair so clearly seen. She was also shocked, with had resulted in her sob to cut off and a gasp to be sucked in. Her shoulders shook for a moment before she turned away from him, grabbing her upper arms.

"Tohru…" he stopped mid-step and settled in the position that was semi-close to her. He reached out to her with a frown on his lips, searching for a shoulder to pat down on. His hand floated in the air for a moment before settling down upon her right shoulder. Almost immediately she pulled away and the jerk had landed her on her hands and knees. Her blue eyes trembled as she looked up at him.

"Kyo… no," she shook her head and tried to stand up, failing. She stumbled and was about to tilt over when Kyo grabbed her securely by the upper arm. She winced, standing in his grip with her head turned away from him. "Let go."

"Not until you tell me what happened," Kyo spoke strictly. "Who… died?" His voice had dropped to a sad whisper as the word was said. His orange eyes were focused intently upon her turned face, and he disliked how she wouldn't look at him. His other hand came up to turn her face in his direction. "Tohru, who died?" The serious tone of his voice made her throat constrict.

"No, Kyo, no," her eyes watered up again and she tried to turn her face to no avail. "Let me go, let me go." She struggled a bit, her voice a little tighter as she spoke the final phrase. Her eyes were wide and wildly desperate to be let go.

He hated to see her so hurt, but he needed to know who had passed, "Tohru, tell me now." Orange eyes peered darkly into her's; searching there for the answer he wanted.

"Eh…" she groaned and suddenly her knees gave out on her, causing her to fall down upon the concrete sidewalk. Her head spun with the thought of Saki and Arisa dead. She couldn't tell him, the simple idea of letting their names pass her lips made her dizzy with sadness. Her one arm was being held still by Kyo, and he had crouched beside her, he wouldn't let her go without the news. She knew she had to say it, even if it made her feel sick to even think about it.

"Saki and Arisa."

With that she yanked her arm away from him, causing him to stumble down upon his bottom and ran away. Her eyes were blinded once more by tears, and she had dropped her bag, but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was get away from the situation at the very moment she said those names. It hurt her inside to even think about them, and now that she had said them she felt extremely distressed. There was nothing she could do, she knew that… But it still hurt, it really hurt.

Kyo was stunned, being knocked so suddenly to the ground by the girl. His head swam with thoughts of her hurt and the death of Saki and Arisa, who he too had become close too. He felt hot tears climbing down his cheeks at the thought of both of them dead. He wiped them away and looked in the direction that Tohru had gone, but there was no sign of her there. The only thing left of he had at the moment was her bag, which she had dropped when she had fallen. He gingerly picked it up and stood, looking again in the direction Tohru had run. She wasn't there.

Kyo heard the sound of footsteps running in his direction and he peered behind him to see Yuki jogging over to him with a worried look in his eyes. Some strands of hair had fallen over his face, hiding parts of his eyes which were red from crying. He stopped a few feet from Kyo and looked at the object in his hand.

"What happened?" he coughed, looking back up at Kyo's face.

"She ran away," he muttered, placing a across his face. "I couldn't help her. Don't you just feel so great now, you were right." He clenched his teeth and looked off in the direction she ran again. "She went that way," he indicated with a jerk of his head, "run after her if you think that you can save her. She's going to get into trouble."

Yuki crossed his arms, looking at the distressed Kyo with equally distressed eyes. "What can either of us do? We tried for her, Kyo. We really tried, and look where's it's ended. She'll come back to the house, hopefully. We'll look for her when we get home if she isn't there. For now, there is nothing we can actually do for her."

"If only they hadn't gone," Kyo muttered with that lost look in his eye. "If only they could have kept living. They would have, if it was for her."

The cousins stood there at the edges of their school grounds, watching the sky with identical despondent looks, both wishing that Tohru Honda wasn't so lost and that Saki Hanajima and Arisa Uotani weren't dead.

**-**

Tohru ran for only a short amount of time before she was out of breath. The strains on her heart made her body feel weak, so she had to stop and rest for a while against an old building. There was no one mysterious around the neighborhood, so that was a good sign. However, quite a few cars were driving by and she worried for her own sake that someone might pull over and attempt a kidnapping. She huffed her breath as another car passed by, and her blue eyes slid closed as she slumped against the brick.

Today was frightening, her best friends die, she meets a strange lion-like boy, and another Sohma. She runs away from both Kyo and Yuki made her heart beat a bit faster. How could she have been so inconsiderate towards their feelings? They had only tried to help her and she had pushed both of them away for her own sake. She felt like slapping herself for letting go of them so quickly. They were the only friends she had now, how could she keep them close when she was pushing them away?

She opened her eyes with a hope to find herself in bed, just waking up from a nightmare. But as her eye-lids came open she only saw the vast blue sky like she had been seeing for her whole life. This was a sky that she would never be able to gaze at with her best friends again, a sky that now seemed lonely and too vast. The sky was consuming everything, and that blue expanse mad her feel sick and dizzy. Why was she the one left here, while everyone she loved was far, far away? Why was she the only one left looking at the sky, feeling so lonely and depressed? Why couldn't they have stayed here with her? She leaned her head back against the bright and wished the sky to consume her as well. What use was she here when no one was left to look at the sky with?

She left out the Sohma family by accident, only thinking selfishly of the past. She didn't stop and dwell upon how she still had them with her, how they still could gaze at the empty expanse with. She didn't think on how many good times she had with the Sohma's. She didn't want to. It was as if she wanted to feel the pain of loneliness stab mercilessly at her heart, not warm it by the thought of the people she had left. The people that loved and cared about, and who she loved in return.

"Why?" she muttered, bringing her head down to rest on her knees again. "Why did you leave me? Please don't go… don't leave me with the empty sky and lonely existence I have now. I don't want you to go… why won't you listen to me? Why won't you come back?" Tohru cried out in utter desperation for her friends to return to her, to come back and sit by her and comfort her. She needed them… she really needed them.

"God, you're really very loud," a voice she heard before broke her sad trance. Her eyes popped open to see the golden-haired boy from earlier. He was standing above her with one eye-brow raised to complete the expression of curiosity. He was still wearing his school uniform, both the sleeve rolled up. "I really wonder why I helped you. I should have just kept you laying there to die if you're just going to give up now."

"G-go away," she muttered, turning her expression from him with difficulty. She didn't want to look at this boy, but she couldn't help but find him amazingly attractive, he did look a bit girly though.

"I really don't think that would be such a good idea, I mean, what will you do when I'm gone? Sit here and sulk again? You need to be a bit more… I don't know, happy?" he watched her squirm unpleasantly under his gaze. "What, am I making you uncomfortable? Should I say sorry?"

Tohru looked up at him before standing, she came under him a few inches, but that was all. She looked up at him with a definite look in her eye, "I don't need your taunting right now. I don't have time for you." She sounded cruel, and it made her cringe inside. It, however, was a way to relieve the sadness that clenched at her heart. She narrowed her eyes, not looking very threatening. But she just couldn't do it, and she broke her glare into a sorrowful expression. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. And I'm sorry for glaring at you… I'm sorry for being loud. I'm sorry for bothering you earlier." She bowed her head and looked back up at him, his lip was twitching.

"You definitely cannot play the mean one," the boy said with a sigh. "And I was hoping to get a rise out of you. I failed in that point. Oh well. It doesn't suit you anyway, being angry. You're too much of a good girl. Well, at this moment, a depressing good girl." He smirked. "Anyway, are you going home or something?"

She nodded to confirm this before realizing something, "Aren't you cutting class?" She gasped when he nodded at her statement. "B-b-but, that's bad! You can't cut class! You're grade will drop! But, then again, I have no right to say what's right and wrong for you. But…" Her mouth was wide open as she jabbered on, and the boy had to place a hand over her mouth with an annoyed expression on his face.

"I saw you leaving so I thought I should come along and see why," he spoke with his eyebrow twitching. "You don't look sick. What is it; you're grief eating away at you?"

Tohru shuddered at the mere mention of grief. Her eyes blinked back tears and she bit her lip, looking to the right. She could feel the tingle of sadness stretching through her eyes and nose, the pain of her biting her lip far away. She couldn't understand how he could speak of her death so simple and easily as though it didn't matter at all. Then again, she didn't think he'd understand in the first place. His best friends weren't dead and he knew nothing about her past and how close she was to these people. He knew nothing, and his blunt and crude comments meant little to him, as they should to her. However, she was vulnerable to such verbal attacks and couldn't help but feel he was intentionally trying to make her remember their deaths.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she whispered, looking up at him with sad blue eyes. "I am dieing from grief, it feels like my insides are being torn out through my back. I can't stand it." Her teary eyes glanced up at him, but he worn an impassive face. She felt unwanted there under his gaze, as if she was just some bug that kept appearing in his life. "If you don't actually care, why do you continue to come and torment me?"

The boy narrowed his eyes and looked off to the side as she had done earlier. There was nothing he could really say to her, nothing that would ease any of her pain, and she knew that. Saying sorry to her was the last thing she knew he had on his mind. She also knew that it wouldn't help if he said he was sorry, she kind of wanted him to be displeased with her, for she was sick of everyone looking at her as though she were perfect and fine. Her blue eyes groped his figure as he stared away, she willed him to look at her with displeasure, annoyance, anything negative. She craved that attention that wasn't completely happy; she wanted him to feel frustrated with her.

"You, and people like you, are much too easy to find. I should have left you alone when I first saw you, but I couldn't help but be drawn to a new opportunity. And besides, you were the one who ran into me. Should I have been sympathetic and asked you what's wrong and then cooed and pitied your story? Perhaps, but, sadly, that's not who I am. So, torturing you is much better then sympathizing with you, or so that's my conclusion," he tilted his head to the side with a bitter expression on his face. "You people think you are the only one's who have had others die on you, it's kind of pathetic in all truth. If only you and your type of people would understand that you aren't the only ones with such pain and hurt in your life. If only you would understand that you aren't the only ones who have lost close people."

The smile was sadistic, the look in his eyes frustrated; wasn't this what she had wanted? She blinked back tears at his statement, but maybe it wasn't because he was so frustrated and angry, but because he knew her pain. She had gotten the reaction she wanted, but now she felt sympathy for the one who had abused her with his words. The sensation she could not ignore and she felt the need to give some kind of compassion onto the hurt one before her. Even as her own heart ached for her loss, she came up to the one who knew of it and abused it and held their hand within her's.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, bowing her head onto the smooth hand she held within her own. "I'm so sorry. I have been selfish and stupid and I acted so inconsiderate towards those around me, and to you. I acted so incredibly cruel to someone I had never met and I am deeply and truly sorry for that. I never thought you'd understand to what I was going through. I always thought I was alone in my grief and pain and I pushed away everyone because of it. It's you who has turned my thoughts around, and I know it's so sudden and strange. You have cleared my eyes, stranger, and I am so grateful for that fact. I am obliged to you, stranger. I am indebted to you and I will do anything for you. I give you this promise." Her fingers gently let go of him and she looked up with tears climbing slowly down her eyes. "I'm sorry for crying." She wiped away the tears, sniffling as she did so.

The lion-boy had gone still, his black eyes slowly stirring over the girl who had held onto him and thanked him. She had thanked him for his verbal abuse, thanked him for his cruel words. It made his head hurt that someone was so strangely kind and compassionate. He looked into those aqua eyes and saw the pain that still ate at her heart, but also that sweetness that had just been shown to him, that strange pull of comfort and beauty that no one he had ever known could have held. It made him feel welcomed and warm, but also small and lost. When he looked in her eyes he felt the pang of loneliness he could not ignore, it was the loneliness of not knowing her full kindness. After staring into her eyes for a few moments he turned his eyes in fear that the seclusion that he felt would consume him.

He couldn't respond to her caring words properly, his tongue felt dry. There was nothing he felt was right to say, nothing could show how shocked he was inside. He wanted to say something gentle, something just as considerate as she had, but there was nothing his mind could come up with. His only words were cruel and crude. He turned his eyes back and the words formed on his tongue before he could keep them away, "You're ignorant… you think that saying these things will make me feel good towards you. I have nothing but frustration towards you, you do realize. You can't change my thoughts with those sugar-coated words. Ha, I don't feel anything like that towards you. You are just a stupid girl who thinks she has the only pain in the world, and can separate herself from it by being kind to random strangers. You're kindness won't bring them back, stop running away from it. You're just trying to think of anything but what you should. It's inevitable to come back to those thoughts, you know. You're fear will catch up with you, and they'll be waiting for you there, waiting to tell you all about how it is to be dead. Yes, they are _dead_."

Tohru stood there, looking at the lion-boy with large and blank eyes. She felt the chill rush her again, the waves crashing down on her. Her blue eyes spilled tears like rain, and they slid down her cheeks to meet and join on her chin before dripping down to the ground. Her mind caved with the words that the boy had just spoken to her. How could she be so stupid as to think that he was going to forgive her? She should have been a bit more intelligent then that. No matter how much she apologized and spoke her feelings, he wasn't going to accept her words. She felt the tingle again as the other words came down upon her. Was she really running away? She saw herself in the hallway, the Nurse's office. Was she turning her back on the death of her friends? She bit down on her lip harder and she knew the skin would break under the pressure, but she didn't care. No pain could bring a candle to what she was feeling inside. She blindly touched her cheek, the dampness made her fingertips tingle.

"I know they're dead…" she mumbled, staring up at him with her blank eyes. "I know that they're gone. I'm not kidding myself. I'm not running away, because I know. I know, but that's different… that's different from accepting it. I-I can't accept it, but I do… I do know. It's different… but I know. I _know_."

The lion-boy widened his eyes at her respond, such true and honest answers she continued to give. She was crying again, and he sighed at this fact. He hated tears, and this girl had done nothing but cry for this whole day that he knew her. He ran a pale hand through his gold hair, dark eyes peering over the girl who was currently looking up at him with wide aquamarine eyes. She was staring so intensely up at him it made him feel quite uncomfortable. He shook his head and turned to the side, setting one foot out before the other.

"Yeah, so you know, and you don't accept it. That's not helping you, is it?" he muttered. "You're not gaining anything from not accepting it. You're just running away, it's the same thing. You have to know about something to run away from it. You have to solve this problem, standing here and telling me that you know isn't going to help it. Do something."

"D-Do what? They're dead; I can't save them, even if I accept it. I can't do anything for them now. I was so stupid as to let them die in the first place," she whispered this now, her eyes lowered as she looked at the ground. The tears stopped leaking, perhaps because she had no more tears to cry.

"Anything, but stop grieving, it's annoying. I've already said this; you're not the only one who has had someone die on you. Stop being such a baby and deal with it, expressing you're sadness like this is only going to make other people worry. And that's not what a goodie-goodie like you wants, is it? Unless, of course, you just like having all of the attention," he smirked, dark eyes narrowing before he began to walk back the way he had come.

Tohru watched the lion-boy walk away with bright blue eyes. Her face was damp with the tears they had spilled and her head beat the thought of everything he had said. It hadn't helped her as she had thought it did before, if anything it made her even more depressed. Her heart ached and her head pulsed. Next her eye-sight would go, she suspected. Her dark hair was clinging to her cheeks from the wetness, and she gently pulled away the strands as she turned away from the direction that he was going. She had to go home.

**-**

The Nurse's door opened and closed, though the closing was more of a slam then anything. The Nurse turned his head with a smile and quickly pounced upon the new occupant of the room. His grin revealed a set of perfect white teeth and canines that looked as though they had been sharpened. He patted the newcomer on the head fondly and pushed him into the closest seat.

"So, I heard that you met Tohru Honda-chan?" the Nurse said with his smile and bright green eyes.

"Yes," the other said with a faint growl in his speech.

"What, not a good experience?" the Nurse rose an eyebrow with a curious smirk. "I thought she was a delightful young girl, though a bit on the slow side."

"Hn," the other person said with a dismissing tone.

"Now, now, don't try to change my thoughts. You must think she is simply adorable by the way you act at her suggestion," Kei brightfully smiled, but got bonked on the head instead. "Hey! That was quite uncalled for!" He frowned playfully and rubbed his head. "Come on, Miyagi; tell me what you think of her!"

"Don't call me that," the voice hissed.

The Nurse smiled sadly and stood up. "Not until you tell me what you thought, Miyagi! Miyagi! _Miyagi_! MIYAGIIII!!"

And what followed was a lot of hitting and swearing and sing-song voices.


	4. Tell Me I'm Real

**Author's Note:** Well... I have no excuse about this. I haven't written in over nine thousand years. Hehehe. Well, enjoy this chapter. I liked it in the beginning, but then it just dies at the end. Meh, live with it.

**Disclaimer:** I do not owned Fruits Basket. Grah.

**The Wolf and Lion: Predators of the Zodiac**

**Author:** T hea R ea

-

**Tell Me I'm Real**

"We're home, Shigure!" Yuki's call rang through the house as he entered with a frustrated Kyo traveling behind him.

After returning to homeroom they each got their own detentions for somewhat different reasons, such as Kyo's hit and run and Yuki for leaving class going after Kyo. They both tried to explain the incident, but were changing the stories between themselves and just ended up making it worse. The only thing that the teacher got out of the whole incident was that Tohru was going home and something about Kyo getting mad at Yuki. Sighing, the teacher just handed them each a detention for the same day a half hour apart. She sent them to their next class with her hopes of Tohru getting better. Neither had the guts to say what really happened.

Yuki removed his shoes, once more calling into the house, "Shigure!" He didn't dare say Tohru's name, he didn't want her to feel obligated to apologize or even come down the stairs if she was in her room.

On the other hand, Kyo didn't feel the same way, "Tohru, are you there?" He was still sore on the butt from his fall, but that wasn't the only reason he called out to her. He also had her bag in his hands and he wanted to return it to her.

"Stupid cat," Yuki hissed, sending a glare in his direction.

"What?" he growled, walking out from the doorway and further into the house.

Yuki shook his head at his cousins either ignorance or complete lack of sympathy. Following him inside, their footsteps made little sound on the wooden floors. Grey eyes glanced around, searching for someone in the house. It seemed void of life though, not a single whisper or breath, with the exception of their own. Yuki felt as though the air was stale, so blank and strange.

"Tohru! Shigure!" Kyo continued to call, cupping his hands around his mouth as he called out into the empty space. His voice echoed back at them, his words lost in the empty air.

"This feels weird," Yuki commented, touching the counters as they came into the kitchen. "Why does it feel so empty in here?"

"Something smells weird," Kyo replied, his orange eyes narrowed, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in this unknown smell.

Yuki didn't smell much at all, just the stale air and the faint kitchen-cleaner that Tohru had used in the morning. Yuki felt a small, sad smile fall on his lips. That morning everything had been different. That morning the air had smelt sweet and fresh, that morning Tohru smiled and laughed with them. Yuki closed his eyes in reminiscence, trying so hard to find what they had lost in between those hours of school.

He could hear the obnoxious laughter of Arisa, the quiet and dark chuckles of Saki as she quietly joked along with them. They were gone, and so was the expression of happiness that they had always left on Tohru's face when she saw them. When he saw Tohru in the nurse's office he had been scared because she looked so sad. He didn't know what to do with her when she was like that. It had always been him who was weak he never had to comfort her before. It made him feel smaller then he usually did. He couldn't protect the strong. He was the one who needed to be protected.

There was nothing he could do for the wounded Tohru, he couldn't comfort her. Kyo couldn't comfort her. Who could comfort her? Who?

Yuki opened his grey eyes to see Kyo's vibrant head just turning the corner as he moved up the stairs. His footsteps were faint to Yuki's ears, far away. He didn't know what to do; he didn't think he could stop him. Yuki knew that they shouldn't interfere with Tohru, or at least, he knew that he couldn't interfere with her emotions. Helping her was out of his ability, and he hoped that it wasn't completely out of Kyo's ability. Someone had to save her.

"Kyo," Yuki's voice was soft, weaker then it had ever been.

"Yeah…," a voice trailed out from up the stairs, Kyo's voice.

"Please… help her," Yuki pleaded in the same tone, his head downcast and his eyes foggy. "I can't do it. So please, help her."

"Stupid," the voice scoffed before the sound of footsteps once more rang as the cat moved about upstairs.

-

Kyo had smelt the salt when he walked into the house, but didn't mention it to Yuki. He only said something smelled weird. It was tears, most likely Tohru. She usually was so loud and obnoxious when she sobbed, but he couldn't hear here at all. Maybe she went out, perhaps she left again. When they had walked into the kitchen, Yuki went into some kind of daze, and Kyo had stalked around, looking for a sign of her. Her shoes had been in the doorway, but that was the only sign that she had been here at all. Deciding that it would be best to check if she was in her room, Kyo slowly began to walk up the stairs. Two reasons to do it so slowly and quietly; he preferred if Yuki stayed in his trance and he didn't want to alarm Tohru with his usual stomping.

Just as he turned the corner to get up the next three steps the sound of Yuki's voice caught him and he silently swore to himself. Why couldn't he be as quiet as a mouse? And then Kyo swore again at that very stupid pun.

"Kyo," Yuki's voice sounded pitiful, and Kyo held back a sigh.

"Yeah…," he wanted to get along with his conversation. He needed to see if Tohru was here, crying. He didn't have time to mess around with Yuki's sadness.

"Please… help her," Yuki voice begged him in the same quiet level. "I can't do it. So please, help her." Kyo rubbed the top of his head in exasperation. He was just about to do that, Yuki always making things so much longer and dramatic. He was probably crying again.

"Stupid," Kyo remarked, both in a teasing and soft way. He didn't have the patience to listen to Yuki's waterworks, so he continued to climb up the steps.

He stalked silently towards Tohru's door. It was shut completely, though that was unusual. Even though she lived in a house full of boys it hardly was every closed. There was always a crack of it open, or just a sliver. Never closed. Kyo placed a hand on the door, another grasping the doorknob, but he ended up being unsure of what to do. The events from earlier played in his head and suddenly his face heated up in a red flame of embarrassment. How could he have been so violent towards her?

He recalled himself grabbing her arm so forcefully, lifting her into a standing position. She must have had bruises from that! That was why she didn't want him to touch her because he was hurting her. Oh god, how could he have been so damn stupid?!

"Tohru," he weakly called out to her, hoping that she was in there.

Nothing was heard in response.

"Tohru," he called again, this time his voice a bit stronger, not to the extreme of forceful though.

Still nothing was heard that could be called a return to his call.

He sighed, banging his head on her door before twisting the knob and entering. As he set foot into Tohru's room, he felt his breath enter him in a short and painful gasp. Tohru's usually neat room was torn apart, clothes scattered and one of her dressers flat on the ground, mirror shattered. His eyes traveled to her bed which was next to the window, and saw her staring blankly at him. He froze and shuddered. Her eyes weren't watering, but he could see the faint shimmer of the past dampness on her cheeks.

"Hello, Kyo-kun," she said cheerfully. She tilted her head to the side and smiled blankly. "Do you want to play with Uo-chan, Saki-chan, and me?" She looked to the left and then the right, her empty smile still on her lips.

Kyo stepped forward, the crunch of glass faintly heard beneath his feet. No shards pierced his skin as he came closer to where she sat. He felt something inside of him feel a faint fear. He had never been afraid of Tohru before. She was so sweet, out-going, kind. She never would have thrown her dresser on the floor and the rest of her clothes as well. She never would have given him that blank smile with those large eyes so void of their usual sparkle. It was as though the life was out of her.

"Tohru… what are you talking about? Arisa and Hanajima are dead," he carefully spoke, walking forward as he did so.

"Kyo-kun, that was silly. Why would you say that?" she laughed. It was cold.

He was at the edge of her bed, and she was on the other side. She looked at the empty spaces beside her and laughed. She talked to the nonexistent people, smiled at them. Each smile concealed her sadness. Each laugh was to keep herself from screaming. Kyo knew that and he disliked it. He didn't want to see Tohru like this. He never thought she'd fall so far as to make up her friends. He never thought that she would be so lonely.

"Tohru, they're not real. Arisa and Hanajima are dead," Kyo said with a bit more force. She turned her head away from him, smiling at the space beside her, joking and laughing. He could tell she was screaming inside, yelling at him to go away, to leave her in peace with those whom she created. "Tohru— _Tohru_! Look at me. They are not-- **LOOK AT ME**!" He yelled at her and she winced, slowly turning her eyes towards him. They were pained, but he was glad. At least they were not blank. "Arisa and Hanajima are dead. You created these things to comfort you like a little kid creates an imaginary friend because no one loves you. But, everyone loves you. You have a lot of friends who are real. I am real. Tohru… _Tohru_. Look at me, and tell me that I am real and imaginary friends you're talking to are not. I am _real_, those are fake." Kyo had stalked across the bed, and was holding her wrists in his hands, tight.

She was shaking her head, but no words were falling. She was staring at him with those large, hurt blue eyes. Her lips were quivering in an attempt to not form a sob. The wrists he held in a constricting grip were shaking like crazy beneath his fingers. She didn't look into his eyes, but trailed the area around them, his eyebrows, his nose, his lips, anything but his glowing eyes.

"Look at me, Tohru. Look at me and tell me that I'm real," he hissed in a low, low tone that revealed his anger.

Tohru whimpered, her head turning away from him and shutting her eyes. "K-Kyo, please stop… You're real… but so are Arisa and Saki. I don't understand what you're trying to say," her helpless tone wavered and she was on the verge of tears.

"Torhu…," Kyo whispered hopefully, lowering his tone to make her relax. "I need you to realize that those two imaginary people who you are talking to are **not** real. I am real. Yuki is real. Shigure is real. Those two things are not real." He released her wrists and examined with his eyes the red prints that showed the sensitive skin where he gripped at her. "Tell me I'm real. Tell me that I am more real that then those imaginary… _things_."

Tohru cowered back, pressing herself full against the wall and the window. Her blue eyes turned on him and so much pain was twirling inside. He could almost taste it on his lips, it tasted like tears. She ducked her head into her arms, pulling her knees up to her body and cried. She cried, and cried. Her sobs were horrible, high and hoarse from her earlier crying. He sat back and sighed, incapable of doing anything to help her now. The deaths of her friends had driven her up a wall and she was so far he could not reach her. He could not bring her down. When his fingers touched her, she went up farther. His words were pushing her away.

He couldn't really read her blue eyes with the exception of the sadness that was within them, the screaming at him to go away. He didn't know what she was really thinking about, what torments her mind was really going through. He wasn't there with her to experience everything that she had experienced. How did her environment help maintain her mental status? All past relationships were shattered and she was left with only the new faces she knew, she had no one left to fall back on. No one was there to hold her anymore. He knew her before, when she was happy. He didn't know her now, her reactions were out of his comprehension. This was different, he knew nothing of it.

He bent his head to touch her knees with his forehead and he blindly hoped that she would react. He hoped that she was scream, or become embarrassed, or something. This crying without really saying what she meant scared him. He wanted her to say what she wanted to like always. He wanted her to be like she used to be. It frightened him when he looked into her eyes and saw both that sadness and that splash of helplessness. He wanted to help her, he didn't know how.

"Kyo… Kyo… Kyo…" she sobbed against her legs, her head buried deep within her clothed thighs. Inside she was screaming, she was throwing her fists against his chest and yelling, _"Don't break me! Don't break me! Please don't break me! Let me see them, don't break me!"_

"I know…," she suddenly whispered, turning her head up to see him pressing his face against her shins. "I know that they aren't real… I know. I want them to be real. I want to see them again. It all falls to, if I am real, they are real. If I am alive, they are alive. I want them to be alive, so they will be alive. I know. I know. And I don't accept it. I refuse. I reject it. I _know_."

This was a view into the inner workings of her mind, but he only glanced upon the words briefly. She knew, yet she didn't want to believe what she knew. She rejected the very idea of death, especially if the idea was used with those whom she loved. Would she also refuse to accept such a death if he died? If Yuki or Shigure? Was she so desperate to have them back that she had to imagine them? Did her refusal of such knowledge carry her that far into mental madness?

Kyo's throat felt hoarse as he gazed upon her blue eyes, once more growing emptier. The screaming behind them faded into whispers, pleads, before it was nothing more then her mouth moving the words. He pulled himself back, defeated, and then he rocked forward and slowly kissed the side of her face. His lips grazed her skin for one moment, pleading her to come back through the softest of brushes. He rocked back and she was still blank. She had turned back to that lifeless puppet, he only cracked through the first layer before and it had already frozen over again. He stared into those void, glass eyes, her vacant smile, and angrily threw his fist through the window pane behind her. The glass shattered around his hand, small shards digging right into his skin.

No reaction.

"Tell me I'm real," he whispered, head lowered onto her knees, hand stinging from the shards imbedded into the skin. "Oh god, tell me I'm real."

"What are you talking about, Kyo-kun? Of course you're real."

-

"Kyo… I heard yelling and then something shattered. What happened?" Yuki demanded as Kyo walked down the steps with his head down.

"She has imagined that Arisa and Hanajima have come back to life," Kyo muttered, raising his orange eyes that held that tainted bitterness. "I got mad and I slammed my fist through the window just next to her head. I'm bleeding. It hurts."

Yuki looked down at his cousin's right hand and sure enough it was dipping blood right onto the wooden floors. Sighing, Yuki pulled at his strands of silver hair before turning into the kitchen to get bandages, tweezers, and something to disinfect the wound. As he walked into the kitchen he heard the second footsteps of Kyo following him, no noise coming from the usually irritated cat. Yuki gathered the items and placed them next to the counter that Kyo had hopped up upon, throwing his legs about in front of him.

"How bad are her imaginations?" Yuki queried as he took Kyo's injured hand gingerly in his own. He dabbed them with water at first, clearing the blood from the wound to examine the shards of glass that had gotten into his fist.

"She can see them sitting next to her. She talks to them and laughs," Kyo answered, wincing as the glass pieces were removed from his knuckles through the use of tweezers. "She has a completely blank look in her eyes, nothing is there. Not pain, happiness, anger. Nothing."

"Mm," Yuki made a curious noise in his throat before applying rubbing alcohol to the wound. Kyo jerked his hand at the sting, causing drops of blood to come back out. "Don't struggle. You've already made it bleed again. Anything else?"

"I got to her for a second. Then she started crying again. She told me she knows that they are dead but she refuses to believe and act like they are," Kyo relayed to Yuki, narrowing his eyes at the sting of the disinfectant as it was pressed in while the bandages were placed.

"I think we should get Hatori to look in on this, don't you agree?" Yuki said, glancing up at his wounded cousin.

"I suppose… but, when? Now? Tomorrow?" Kyo questioned, his eyebrow raised.

"Today would be good. Getting to know what exactly the problem is quicker is the right thing to do," Yuki nodded his head and stood up, moving towards the phone.

"I already know what the problem is! She's freaking out because her friends are dead and she doesn't want to believe it," Kyo pointed out with an annoyed huff.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Yuki said dismissingly, taking the phone in hand to start dialing. Just as he was about to dial the first number, the annoying voice that everyone knew and hated rang through the house.

"Greeting, children! Uncle Shigure is baacck! With special guest, Hatori!" Shigure burst through the back door, running into the room with his hand on Hatori's collar, dragging the doctor in with him.

"Hatori! We need you right now!" Yuki announced, completely ignoring Shigure, who he pushed out of the way.

"Why? Where is Honda-kun?" he asked out of the blue, his purple eyes not able to spot the house-maker in the area.

"That's the problem," Kyo muttered from his place on the counter, examining the bandages that had been placed on his hand.

"What?" Hatori inquired, his eyes narrowed at the two boys. "Did you two do something idiotic to her or something?" He walked farther into the house, looking at Yuki and Kyo with equally annoyed and curious looks.

"No. Today it was said that Saki Hanajima and Arisa Uotani, Tohru's two best friends, died. She has gone into denial, already. She has imagined that they exist and is talking to them in her room," Kyo said from his spot, poking the bandages with indirect curiosity. He was more into what Hatori was going to say or do.

"What?!" Shigure announced from the floor with utter disbelief. "That can't be possible! How could either of them die? They were both scarier then most teenage girls I've met!" Shigure scratched the top of his head in wonder of how those two could end up dead or even injured.

Hatori, on the other hand, had taken on a more serious expression. His eyes were clouded with thought. He was thinking just how much Tohru would be affected by these certain deaths, and it only hit him now that they were the only two connections that Tohru had to her past before the Sohma's with the exception of her Grandfather who was already old enough. There would soon be no one left in Tohru's life that could relate to her in the past, and that was what frightened her.

"Tell me every interaction you've had with her since the news," Hatori suddenly demanded, his face turned to Yuki and then Kyo. They looked a bit miffed for a moment before turning back to Hatori and explaining their encounters with the newly depressed Tohru.

Hatori examined these with his mind, running over the things that she had reacted too. It was only until Kyo's second encounter that everything seemed to go down. "Wait…," Hatori said at the end of Kyo's story. "She didn't have any expression until you actually yelled at her?" His purple eyes were narrowed, questioning.

"Well, she had that creepy empty smile, but that was all I could see. She was laughing with this kind of freezing voice, and it sounded like she was…," Kyo stopped, scratching his head as he thought back on what he was thinking then. "Well it sounded like she was trying too…."

"Trying to mask something," Hatori finished him with a sigh. "Tohru is suffering from denial, yes, but I think its developing much faster then normal. Usually loved ones don't start denying it until a few days later. Usually it has to sink in. But then again, it is Tohru… Still, I don't believe that she didn't have any reaction at all from you slamming your fist two inches from her face."

"Well, it's true," Kyo sighed, rubbing his face with the heel of his hand.

"What can we do to help her, Hatori?" Yuki questioned with sorrowful eyes, clouded by pain for the poor girl who was slowly going insane upstairs.

"I don't know… she has gone so far in such a little time," Hatori sighed, blinking with a silence that was scary. Since when did Hatori not know the answer to something?

_Thump. Thump_.

Someone was on the stairs; there was only one person who could be. Tohru.

"Oh, Hatori, sorry I haven't prepared anything! I've had my friends over, so I didn't know you were here," Tohru's wide blue eyes stared out at them. They were glassed over with the same emptiness that Kyo had seen before. He winced away from her gazed and hid his face in his shoulder. "I'll go out and get something right now with Arisa and Saki!" She smiled and then looked behind her and said something softer then the rest.

Hatori was looking at her with calculating eyes, trying to decipher what exactly he was going to do to get her back to normal. It was so very strange to watch her stand there and pretend to be happy. He blinked and she was next to Shigure, saying something to him in a low voice with that lost smile on her face.

"Bye, bye!" she waved her hand and then skipped out to the front of the house.

"Hatori…," Shigure looked at him, and his eyes read worry. "She said that she was going to go spend the night at Saki's house."

"What?!"


End file.
